Using High ISO and No Flash to Create "Mood"

©JP Parmley
Wikipeda says that "A mood is an emotional state".

In most situations, I like to keep the ISO as low as possible even with the high performance of the 5DMIII.  Unless I was shooting a quickly moving subject indoors and needed a fast shutter, I usually try to stay below 800.

But I have been experimenting with some situations that for me, create "Mood".  Perhaps the emotional state you will get to from these images will be different than mine, but none the less, it is hard to deny that "Mood" is present.

In these series of images with the bride and groom with their parents, after I had taken several with an on and off-camera flash, I turned the flashes off and cranked up the ISO.  Taken at ISO 3200, f4.5, 1/60th these images create a feeling that the images with the flash just do not portray.  We have received more feedback on these images than any of the others.  Perhaps because the parents of the bridal couple felt the emotion or were reliving the "Mood" of that moment in time.  Whatever it is, shooting higher ISO images to help deliver the "Mood" is now a part of every event I shoot.